Women's National Champs RR

Louise Moriatry reports from the Road Race National Champs:

"I rode my first race of the season Saturday 27th June, with little training in the legs (due to a hectic final year of architecture and an untimely broken wrist). 40 girls lined out in the sunshine in Dunboyne for the 84km National Championship road race with 6 small hills.

There were lots of attacks, but the large bunch and the up and down nature of the course meant that it was difficult to get free and stay free. This, incidently, was fine by me. I went with a number of attacks (perhaps not very intelligent given my lack of fitness!), and was able to recover from those efforts because the average speed wasn't fast. We even had time for a fifteen minute tea break in the middle of the race when we were stopped to allow the faster-moving vets race ride by us!

On the last hill I cramped really badly. Not just a calf muscle, but all of my leg muscles decided to go on strike. A combination of the heat and lack of training I guess. I drank as much as I could, but struggled to keep pedalling and definitely couldn't put any pressure on. The finish was made for me - straight road, bunch sprint - but sure I couldn't even get out of the saddle! Some other riders were watching me and Siobhan even tried to box me in, which was quite funny since I knew they were looking at the wrong person. I was afraid to get out of the saddle and sprint as my legs were locking up and if I fell off it would cause mayhem, so I rolled in in 9th place. Not bad with no training!

Next up is the International Track Gran Prix (July 11th) and the National Track Championships (July 17-19th), then I'll try to get fit enough for the National time trial championships and Ras na mBan in September."

Pictures can be seen here